The ‘Voice of the Shockers’

(St. Louis, MO) – Mike Kennedy has been the voice of Wichita State sports for 34 years and year 34 has been the most fun. He is the radio announcer for the undefeated and second ranked Shocker basketball team.

He is a great announcer and a prince of a man. I spent some time with Mike to find out what makes this edition of Shocker basketball so good.

While there is plenty of talent on this Shocker team, Mike says their togetherness and generally good character are what stand out to him.

 

With three teams from the state of Kansas here in St. Louis, Mike knows it is a significant weekend for basketball fans in the Sunflower state and he doesn’t see any real weakness with this Shocker team. Obviously an injury to one of their four main scorers would be difficult to overcome and point guard Fred Van Vleet is the most irreplaceable Shocker of them all.

Mike knows that fame and national attention is a fleeting favor, so he is hoping the young Wichita State team can stay focused for the next three weekends. He says this has been his most pleasurable season because of the success of such unselfish players.

 

The Shocker announcer says Head Coach Gregg Marshall is fun to work with,  but he also has a prickly snide that comes out because he is intensely competitive. But more than anything Mike said that Coach Marshall genuinely likes and enjoys people and has invited the community in to be a part of the program.

 

That togetherness that has been spoken of so often, shows up in the coaching staff that Marshall has assembled. His staff is close-nit and they enjoy one another’s company. If you watch Marshall on the Shocker side-line you notice he is the one in command, but he leans on his staff during discussions because he trusts them.

Mike Kennedy has been a good friend during my years of announcing MVC Tournament games. I for one, hope he has six more games to announce this year!

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